Drama Class
by aluthera malfoy
Summary: What happens when Snape directs a play? What happens when Ginny falls for someone other than Harry? Read and find out!
1. Chapter 1

Drama Class

It was the beginning of Ginny Weasley's sixth year, and she was depressed. As she waited for the Hogwarts Express to arrive at Hogwarts, she gazed at her reflection on the window. '_Stupid Weasley genes, I knew I would have red hair and freckles, but why do I have to have my Mothers hazel eyes and WHY DO I HAVE TO BE FAT_!' she muttered angrily to herself. '_I love Mum, but I really don't want to look like her._'

Ginny was devastated that she wasn't thin like Ron, Bill, and Percy. She figured that as fat as she was, no boy would ever look at her the way Ron looked at Hermione. Especially not Harry Potter who could have any witch he wanted. Harry... just the thought of him made her hurt inside. When Harry had moved in with Snuffles, his big black dog, Ginny had secluded herself in her room and spent most of her time reading or daydreaming. She stayed in there for two reasons. One was her newly rounded body (not curvaceous, she gloomed, just round). However, the other reason was much more painful, being that she knew that Ron Harry and Hermione would ignore her, Ron because she was just the little sister, Hermione because she would be too busy watching over the boys, and Harry, Harry because he never noticed her. Ever.

She thought back to her first year, how she knew deep down inside that Tom was evil, but she had blocked it out because Tom paid attention to her, and had said he loved her. All her life she had been excluded as too young or just a girl, but Tom didn't care about those things, and he said he loved her. He listened and at least he pretended to care... but no, she didn't have time to lose herself in the mixed emotions that surfaced when she thought of Tom.

She sighed and fingered her new robes lovingly. She was grateful to Fred and George for buying them with their large profits from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. She, like Ron hated being looked down on for being another poor Weasley, or in Malfoy's lexicon, a poor Weasel. '_Better than being a rich ferret with no... brains_.' She thought with a giggle as she looked around her compartment at her two best friends, Neville Longbottom and Colin Creevey. It made her smile to think how badly they had corrupted her. She thought like a boy, spoke like a boy and acted like a boy. Not that Ron knew. Ginny was good at pretending to be innocent. Or anything else for that matter. She was just a good pretender.

Neville looked back at her, also smiling. He knew that Ginny thought herself to be fat, but he thought she just looked soft and warm and cuddly and... '_Oh boy, Ron would kill me if he knew_!' Neville thought, grinning sheepishly.

The train finally pulled up to Hogwarts. "Firs' years over here, firs' years!" Hagrid boomed. "Hello Ginny, how's it goin'?"

"Great, but I'm going inside. I'm freezing!" Ginny called back loudly over the sound of the storm.

Draco was glad to be back at Hogwarts. Ever since Aurors had killed his father the previous summer, he had wanted to escape his hell of a house. It's not like he ever really liked his father, it's just that he couldn't stand the sound of Narcissia's incessant weeping over the man. '_Evil bitch_,' He thought bitterly. '_Why couldn't she die with him_?' Narcissia was just as abusive as Lucius had been, she was just more subtle. Yes, that's were he got his subtlety. The subtlety that he used so no one would suspect anything amiss in his home life. Draco was very good at subtlety. Draco glanced around the dining hall and realized how much he hated routine. No one ever changed at Hogwarts, every one was always the same. Except... was that little Weasel? She looked different. Softer somehow.

'_Ughhh! Was I just looking at Little Weasel and thinking she looked... SOFT_?' Draco grimaced and turned back to the sorting. As the hat finished with "John Zellar... Slytherin!"

He waited for Dumbleass' usual speech. Boy was he in for a shock.

"This year we have a special surprise for all sixth and seventh years! In lieu of quidditch, this year we will be performing a muggle activity called a play. Now, before you all show your excitement, let me finish." Dumbledore smiled at the horrified expressions in the crowd, and then continued. "This new activity will be headed by none other than Professor Snape. Oh, and this is a mandatory activity, please don't forget it. Now, enjoy the feast!"

"Stage crew will be Bulstrode, Padma Patil, Crabbe, Goyle Longbottom, and Thomas will be painting sets. Now for our actors. I will list this in alphabetical order. Remember people, this isn't the actual cast, just people willing to play around like muggles." Snape glowered at the students. "Lavender Brown, Colin Creevey, Seamus Finnegan, Hermione Granger, Eugene Goble, Draco Malfoy, Aluthera McNair, Parvati Patil, Harry Potter, Jesse Schroeder, Ginny Weasley, Ron Weasley, and Blaise Zabini. The rest of you will assist the stage crew. Dismissed!"

"Wow, I really thought Snape was gonna blow in there! Too bad, it might have been fun." The HRH trio was still in shock that Malfoy was human without his Slytherin henchmen. The thought that the threesome had become a foursome still aggravated Ron to no end. Ever since the events of their fifth year, Draco Malfoy had been a spy for the side of good. He had been broken-hearted when the only Slytherin he actually liked, not to mention loved had been slaughtered by Lord Voldemort. Pansy Parkinson hadn't deserved to die. All she had done was refuse to lead the dark lord to Harry's house. The Dark Lord found it anyway, and massacred the Dursleys. Harry escaped on Draco's broomstick when Malfoy heroically flew to his rescue in memory of Pansy's sacrifice.


	2. Chapter 2

_**CHAPTER 2**_

_R_emus Lupin sighed as he looked over the diminished number of students the next morning at breakfast. He was back for his third year of teaching, being the first teacher in over two decades to teach two consecutive years in the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. Since the upheaval following Harry Potter's fifth year, culminating in the wizarding world acknowledging Voldemort's return, Cornelius Fudge had been sacked in favor of Arthur Weasley, Dumbledore was the leader of the Great War, and all of Hogwarts' professors had been members of the Order of the Phoenix. During Harry's sixth year, Harry managed to defeat Lord Voldemort by using his own magic against him. He used a complex spell that had been created the joint efforts of Professor Dumbledore, Professor Snape, Hermione, and Draco Malfoy. Draco had worked with Snape as a spy following the death of Pansy, and managed to find the chink in the armor of Voldemort's supposed immortality. Voldemort had been siphoning the magic from his Death Eaters, and Draco managed to get a hold of the spell he used. He took the spell, and Harry used it against Voldemort, briefly becoming the most powerful wizard in the world. The spell Hermione and the two professors had made enabled his body to hold that amount of magic. Without the spell, which they decided to call the Armourate spell, Harry would have been consumed whole by the magic. The war leading up to Voldemort's defeat was violent, and resulted in the death of many wizards and witches, including Percy Weasley, Sibyll Trelawney, the Dursleys', Lucius Malfoy, and of course, Pansy Parkinson.

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Draco glanced around the Great Hall at his fellow students. '_There are so few Slytherins,' _he contemplated. The thought saddened him. He had always been so proud of being a Slytherin, for of all the houses, Slytherin was the most loyal, if only to each other. Now, with Voldemort's defeat, most Slytherin parents had pulled their students from Hogwarts in favor of Durmstrang, where they were less likely to be harassed about their ties to the Dark Lord. Draco turned to the only real male friend he had ever had in the Slytherin house, Blaise Zabini. Draco and Blaise had been childhood friends, yet had been forced to separate once at Hogwarts because of Lucius Malfoys insistence that Draco hang around with Crabbe and Goyle. Now that Draco had no orders to follow, he could reform his friendship, and Crabbe and Goyle moved on to form their own lives.

"Blaise, look at the Gryffindor table for a minute. Does the littlest Weasel look different to you?"

"I dunno, sure. Draco, I thought you were getting along with the dream team. Why insult her?" Blaise said all this in a distracted manner. Blaise had a reputation as a flirt. At the moment, he was trying to catch the attention of a pretty girl at the other end of the Slytherin table. He thought she looked familiar, but couldn't place her. Now if he could only figure out why the thought of chess kept popping into his head...

"I get along with Harry and Hermione yes, and I can deal with the big Weasel, but that girl's different. She's mouthy and obsessed with Harry. She has no real personality. Also, she isn't part of the _dream team _as you so nicely put it. She's just a wanna-be groupie. And--"

"Jesus Draco, I was just saying that I thought you were getting along, not that you were getting married. And if you hate her so bad, then why are you asking about how she looks? Anyway, I was wondering if you knew who that girl is at the end of the table, the redhead. She looks familiar." Blaise was starting to get irritated with Draco's attitude. That was the third time that Draco had freaked out that day. Blaise was starting to be a pro at the whole distraction thing. He was mostly a laid-back kind of guy, but he hated getting snapped at. He got enough of that at home. Laid-back doesn't always mean insensitive. Blaise was a master at controlling his emotions, and often used it to his advantage.

"That red-head is Aluthera Mcnair. I thought you would recognize her, seeing as you two played chess almost every night of the school year last year. She's a year below us, right?"

"Holy Hell, yeah. I can't believe I didn't recognize her! Well, actually, I do, she looks so different. When did she turn all punk?" Blaise sounded completely shocked. The Aluthera Mcnair he remembered was a short girl who dressed mostly in black under her robes. Also, she had worn glasses and had been a quiet, subdued, and intelligent girl who was a master at chess. Blaise played her regularly, because none of the others in the Slytherin common room had the skills, or the concentration. They were mostly obsessed the previous year with trying to keep away from their Death Eater parents. This new Aluthera Mcnair was wearing her school robes open, so you could see her black corseted top and her dark green "artfully" torn skirt below. Her hair was multi-layered and had about seven different shades of red in it. In her hands was a new copy of "_Wizards In Glass_" a book written by a wizard named Stephen King. (Though he is commonly assumed to be a Muggle, it isn't so!) Blaise was instantly attracted to this new facet of her personality.

"I don't know, I and I don't care!" snapped Draco, bringing Blaise back to reality with a thump. Draco felt a sudden twinge of guilt for looking at other girls, especially Ginny. He sighed, thinking of what Pansy would say if she were there. Probably something along the line of _'Stop acting so stupid, Draco! There are more important things to be thinking about right now. For example, why is Dumbledore acting like there is still a threat?' _That was his Pansy, always good for a reality check, and always good for a quick kick to the ego. His Pansy...

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Ron glanced at the Slytherin table, and noticed the depressed look on Draco's face. He almost felt sorry for the git. Almost. Harry and Hermione may have been getting along with him, but Ron knew that Draco wasn't to be trusted. Not after the way he used to treat Hermione. Ron had finally realized his feelings for Hermione the year before, but he had never told her about it. He knew that Draco was trying to be good, but he was suspicious, and, though he would never admit it, he was afraid that if Draco had ever bothered to try to get Hermione's attention, then Ron would have no chance.

"Is Malfoy still pining over Pansy?" Ron asked suddenly.

"Yes, the poor dear. It's so romantic, in a totally tragic way," Hermione said with a sigh. She knew perfectly well that Ron liked her, and she liked him as well, but she refused to do anything about it until he admitted it. Well, she would do some things, like drive him crazy with jealousy, she thought with an internal smile.

Ron's mind began to race frantically. _'She doesn't LIKE him, does she?' _

"You do realize that that poor dear _is_ the same Malfoy that tormented you for five years, right?" he asked nastily, trying to gauge her emotions. Which was not something he was good at...

"Mal- Draco isn't like that anymore!" snapped Harry. "You know he changed last year, and you know he's on our side. And anyway, we have more important things to worry about, like why Quidditch was cancelled. After breakfast, let's ask Professor Lupin."

Severus Snape looked at the papers in his hand, muttering under his breath. "Damn that Dumbledore... Muggle play... Potter and _his _gang... Revenge..." He was in the process of trying to pick a Muggle play suitable for his class. He had found one that he liked a lot, but he wasn't sure if it was appropriate. The play he liked so much was _A Midsummer Night's Dream _by William Shakespeare. He muttered to himself some more, and then made the decision in his head. This was the play that they would do, and it would be a masterpiece. Now he just had to figure out who would be cast, and how you directed a play, anyway.


End file.
